Trends in Talent Acquisition to Watch in 2023

The dates and year is not the only thing that has changed recently. As we dive into 2023, things may start to look a bit different than where we left off last year. Some trends are already emerging and will likely remain firmly in place, at least for the foreseeable future. Let’s take a look at how recruitment and retention is evolving and what it could mean for you.

  1. Proactive candidate engagement

Proactively engaging candidates has long been a common practice, especially when filling C-suite executive vacancies; It was, however, rarely used when hiring for entry-level positions. That scenario is quickly changing now. In a LinkedIn survey, 84 percent of recruiters said that engaging passive candidates is becoming important in lower- and middle-level roles and for bringing top talent into the funnel. While many in recruiting positions are starting to realize this and incorporate it into their daily routines, the team at Target Solutions has been doing this for more than three decades. Building relationships and proactively finding the candidates best-suited to positions, especially Go-To-Market talent has played a key role in our success and the success of our partners.

  1. Use of Recruiting Automation

2023 will witness more recruiting and staffing firms turning to automation for simplifying repetitive tasks and reducing admin work. In a survey conducted by the Society of Human Resources Professionals (SHRM) of 2,850 recruiting professionals, most agreed that investing in better recruiting tools and technology is the best way to improve recruiter performance. This means incorporating programs and platforms to help parse resumes, manage hiring and client pipeline, post jobs on multiple platforms simultaneously, and much more. By using automation to efficiently engage candidates at various stages of hiring, you will likely be able to improve important recruitment metrics like time to hire and time to submittal.

  1. Diversity and inclusion

Business leaders globally accept that a culturally diverse workforce fuels innovation, creativity, and higher profitability. However, currently, only one in three recruiters track the diversity of candidates. Diversity metrics like gender or ethnicity of candidates sourced, interviewed, or hired—are rarely used today. But 2023 will witness a change in this ratio. More and more clients are increasingly investing more in diversity and inclusion efforts. So, recruitment agencies will have to focus on deploying innovative candidate evaluation tools designed to eliminate bias in recruiting and hiring.

  1. Data-Centric Recruiting

The use of data in recruiting is in no way a new concept. For a long time, recruiters have used data to help make decisions. But, what’s evolving is the use of advanced technology to make hiring decisions more precise. This has led to a change in focus from grades or experience to the candidate’s overall personality. Tactical metrics —like time to hire, candidates per hire, or offer acceptance rate—will still be important to track your recruiters’ immediate actions. However, future recruiting will revolve more around strategic metrics that measure the business outcomes of the team’s efforts—not just the actions they take. Developing a client’s talent strategy will be just as important as executing it.

Recruiting will get more creative and complex as the most administrative and routine parts of work get automated. It will become less about execution and more about talent strategy. The recruiters will be responsible for anticipating hiring managers’ needs, solving their problems, and spotting opportunities for them.